From Past to Present
by ex-tea-sea
Summary: [Updated!] Three years after the defeat of Asakura Hao, the menace returns as dangerous, powerhungry and avenging as ever. He seeks out those who defied and denied him in the past and a series of plotlines bloom in a tangle of confusion and peril.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer; I don't own Shaman King, or any Shaman King characters, okay? Thank you. (You know you like these things short and sweet).

Authors Note; I'm Canadian. If there happen to be words spelt oddly in here, (such as "colour" and "favourite") that's because it's the Canadian spelling of those words. No complaints, please. Thank you.

Ah, also – normal italic font is a Shaman/Human being thinking. /Italic/ font, with the slashes, is the thoughts of a Spirit or alternate being. Thanks. /Authors Note

.x. From Past to Present; Chapter One .x.

Three, long years.

Hao glared down at his gloves, face maintaining a slightly troubled expression as he thought gravely of his pathetic defeat three painful, rehabilitation-filled years ago. He was quite sure that his scars, in and out, would never heal over completely. The Spirit of Fire had seemingly vanished, having not been seen or heard of by the Shaman since the incident. Perhaps it had been swallowed into hell at last? The cursed being that left this longing of revenge and peace boiling furiously in his veins.

"Three, long years," he muttered aloud to himself now, standing up. He stood high upon a temple-like structure, gargoyles made by normal humans straining to escape the concrete that they were enclosed in; jaws hanging open in an ever-lasting howl.

_/Master Hao. Master Asakura Hao. You are alive./_

A figure loomed beside the temple, glowing with a ferocious red colour.

"Spirit. Spirit of Fire. You are dead," Hao replied darkly, shooting a cold expression at the Spirit of Fire despite all it's enormity. Then his expression soothed into a more calmly devious one, and he beckoned the giant Spirit to him. It lowered its hand, which he jumped onto. Together they rose into the air.

"Revenge is a type of sin that I currently lust for, Spirit of Fire," Hao said quietly to himself. A dark smile crossed his lips, and the Spirit and Shaman circled high above the temple. "Perhaps there is no immediate way that I can take in my other half again… but it will come to me. Some how, however, I doubt crossing paths in a dark alley is an option."

/_Though there are definitely options./_

A rip of cold laughter tore through the air. Hao held his stomach, the dark laughter enveloping his entire being. The Spirit of Fire paused in order to watch this sudden outburst.

"Don't stop flying," Hao said, catching his breath. "No, I agree with you completely. There are so many options, that it really shouldn't be that funny at all. Although…"

Hao trailed off, his cloak rippling around him as the sharp wind coursed past his body, and sent his long hair aloft behind him.

"Perhaps… taking the advice I previously brushed aside… would be of some use?" Hao fell silent, a slow, dark smile creeping over his lips. He laughed quietly again. "The art… of companionship. They did not say how it was to be used. Not that I'd need a friend anyway." Hao paused to think momentarily of Opacho, who he had not seen since she ran away from him three years ago. He narrowed his eyes slightly, his devious smile gone. Then it returned in an instant, as though the frown had never been there. "Taking advantage of your lowers, though, is so easily done. Go."

Hao vanished from the Spirit of Fire's palm, and it soared down towards the temple. It burned through the stone of the temple, releasing smaller, enclosed spirits hidden within. It's gaping jaws hung open, and the Spirit of Fire loomed forward, hungrily sucking in the retreating spirits before they could make their escape.

More cold laughter drifted over the hilltops and trees from the middle of the woods. Asakura Hao pulled his sword from its sheath, and lifted it slowly to neck-level.

"With revenge… comes power." He grinned like a devil, and with the sword, took a swipe at his long, dark brown hair.

.x. .x.

Authors Note (again); okay. A bit of a short chapter. I was going to make it longer by adding in additional information about the other characters but THAT can be saved for the next chap – and the summary! Yay! /Authors Note

In The Next Chapter; Things catch up in terms of the rest of the Shaman King cast. What has happened to Opacho is revealed, and slowly but surely the plot begins to bloom a little wider (I hope). Please stick with me (us) for a little while, check back. Hopefully this thing will be worth my Holidays and Weekends. XD


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer; I don't own Shaman King, or any Shaman King characters, okay? Thank you. (You know you like these things short and sweet). /Disclaimer

Authors Note; I'm Canadian. If there happen to be words spelt oddly in here, (such as "colour" and "favourite") that's because it's the Canadian spelling of those words. No complaints, please. Thank you.

Ah, also - normal italic font is a Shaman/Human being thinking. /Italic/ font, with the slashes, is the thoughts of a Spirit or alternate being. Thanks. /Authors Note

Authors Note.2; Thanks for the comments guys. Sorry for the enormously wide gap between chapters. ; Shouts at the end of the chapter. /Authors Note

.x. From Past to Present; Chapter Two .x.

Asakura Yoh shivered, standing nude and staring at his to-be wife, Kyouyama Anna, who stood patiently staring at a stop watch, bound in winter attire. She rocked back and forth on her feet for a few moments, and then threw her watch behind her. Yoh looked a bit startled. "A-am I f-finished yet, Anna-san?" he inquired, shivering.

Anna looked at him and blinked a few times. "No. The watch stopped working from the cold. I'll go get a new one, don't move," she said. Yoh frowned and shivered more, though knew better than to say anything about her strict training methods, and waited patiently as his fiance departed from the large freezer inside of the Funbari Onsen Inn kitchen.

He yelped a bit and turned to hide himself as she returned with not only herself, but four others; Tao Jun, Tao Ren, Pirika Usui, and Horokeu Usui (more commonly known as Horohoro).

"You have visitors," Anna said bluntly, swinging her new watch around her finger. Pirika giggled and blushed as she hid her eyes at the sight of Yoh, and Jun followed to sheild her's as well. Ren and Horohoro evidently didn't care much, though Ren did go a bit purple.

"Asakura Yoh. Why are you standing nude in your freezer?" Ren questioned, looking a little cross, even though it wasn't even his house.

"Yoh is training," Anna said for him, giving Ren a bit of a sharp look. "He wasn't expecting visitors.""Actually, Anna-san, I-"

"Shut up," Anna interrupted and looked at her stopwatch. "Now stand on one foot and get going."Pirika blinked and then snapped her fingers. "Brother, Anna-san is training Yoh! You should be training as well! Why are we even here? Well, seeing as how we are, get undressed. Anna do you have another stopwatch?"

Jun nodded, "Otouto-chan, you should train as well! Though you do every day on your own, it couldn't help to try Anna-san's technique!"

Horohoro put up his hands and cringed as Pirika jumped him, and Ren's yell of protest rang throughout the entire inn.

There was a ten minute window in which everyone faught a brave fight that the women won in the end.

Asakura Yoh, Tao Ren, and Usui Horohoro shivered, staring at Yoh's to-be wife, Kyouyama Anna, Ren's sister, Tap Jun, and Horohoro's sister, UsuiPirika, who all stood patiently staring at stop watches, bound in winter attire.

.x. .x.

Eventually of course, the three young men bickered their ways out of the cold depthes of the Inn kitchen (except for Yoh who just got another two hours) and in approximately a few hours later, all six were seated around the kitchen table, poking at chicken with their chopsticks.

Yoh took a long gulp of orange juice and then set his glass down, sighing contently with a housecoat tightly wrapped around him. Horohoro hadn't come off too badly, being used to the frigid weather, though Ren's hair had collected ice crystals, and he was still shaking miserably from his 'training experience', sipping frin a carton of milk.

And then, of course, as always happens during dinnertime, there was a knock at the door.

Yoh rose from his knees, though with a sharp look from Anna, seated himself again just as quickly, allowing his fiance to answer the door herself.

"Yoh. It's Manta," Anna said, quite seriously, returning to the table and sitting down. Yoh stood up, scratching the back of his head as he walked towards the door.

"Manta! I was coming to answer it but Anna got here before me," he said while grinning. Manta had grown taller over the last three years but he was still, of course, shorter than everyone else around him, standing about 4'2". Yoh looked down at his best friend, and his expression changed to a small frown.

Manta was shaking, looking out behind him over the property opposed to at Yoh, and when he did look back at Yoh, his eyes were very round and saucery, and on his left eye played what appeared to be a bruise. "Yoh-kun! You won't believe what I just saw! What just happened to me! What just-"

Yoh, being just generally the way he was, grinned a bit and scratched the back of his head again. "Manta, why don't you come in? You need to settle down. Have some orange juice and get some ice for your eye-"

"No! Yoh, you have to listen to me!"

Yoh looked down at Manta with increasing surprise. His vertically challenged friend was tugging at the bottom of his shirt, looking up at him. Yoh actually began to worry; he'd never seen Manta in such a frantic state, and it almost scared him a little.

"Okay, Manta. Tell me."

"I was on my way home from my classes," Manta began, "and then I was walking through the grave yard, saying hello to everybody on my way home - but then you were there!"Yoh interrupted, "Manta, I've been home all night, remember? I told you I had training to do-""I KNOW! Let me finish," Manta replied. "You were there, and you came up to me, and you said that you had to talk to me. And I asked you why you weren't training with Anna, and you said that you were finished, and I was amazed because you got off early, and then-"

"Manta! Slow down?"

"Sorry! By that time I was getting a bit suspicious because I know that Anna never lets you off early-" There was a slight 'ha' from the dining room - "and then you punched me! Look at my eye!"

"I can see that, Manta," Yoh said. Now he was thoroughly worried. Either Manta had studied far too hard that evening, or the in-town kids who were subject to substance abuse had slipped something into one of his drinks. "Manta, come in."

This time Manta obeyed and walked in as Yoh opened the door for him. Anna, Ren, Jun, Horohoro and Pirika all were staring at him, having overheard the whole story. Manta offered them a brief wave, taking a deep breath from lack of oxygen due to his quickly-told story.

Another pillow was pulled up to the table and some food was set out.

"Yoh has been training all day since he got home," Anna said in her usual drawl, leaning back a bit. "He will never be let off early. He's not even done tonight's training."

Yoh would have shot her a critical look, though, with his better judgement, took the matter into seriousness and sighed. "She's right, Manta. There was no way that I was at the graveyard tonight. Even Horohoro and Ren know that."

All three young men shared a simultaneous quiver at the memory of the kitchen freezer.

"Hai. Yoh's right, Manta," Horohoro said, nodding in agreement. "He was here when we got here. And that was almost three hours ago, now."

Jun blushed a bit. "Yes. He was in the freezer the whole time."

Manta made a double-take. "Freezer?"

Ren, Horohoro and Yoh sighed in unison. "Don't ask."

"Moving on," Anna spoke up suddenly, glaring at the other gentlemen in the room before looking over at Manta directly. "Why would Yoh hit you, Manta?"

Manta nodded a little; the answer was evident. Yoh wouldn't hit him - or at least, not for a reason like that. Yoh observed his friend in concern.

"Yoh-dono would never hurt Manta." Amidamaru made his sudden appearance. He'd been sitting away in a corner quietly, listening in on the entire conversation.

Yoh nodded in agreement, though did so slowly; it wasn't that he was uninterested in what was going on, his usual lazy nature was just catching up with him.

Manta sighed, poking at his laptop in concern. "But who could it have been, then?"

Horohoro loomed quite suddenly over Manta's shoulder. "Mantaaaa... maybe it was allll a dreeaaamm- OW! Pirika!"

Ren sweatdropped as Horohoro's sister shook her fist at her brother. "You rise an exceptionally relevent question. Who _could _have done that to you?"

The entire room fell silent as each person dwelled on that one thought.

.x. .x.

Shouts

RainyLuna; Thanks :D;

Kari moon; NEVER ZEKE. Ever. XD; Thanks, I'll keep trying 

Horizons Rise; Ehh, don't worry. It'll grow back. ; Sorry for the (huge) delays. T.T;

/Shouts


	3. Chapter 3

**(Disclaimer;) **I don't own Shaman King, or any Shaman King characters, okay? Thank you. (You know you like these things short and sweet).** (/Disclaimer)**

**(Authors Note;) **I'm Canadian. If there happen to be words spelt oddly in here, (such as "colour" and "favourite") that's because it's the Canadian spelling of those words. No complaints, please. Thank you.

Ah, also - _normal italic _font is a Shaman/Human being thinking. _/Italic/ _font, with the slashes, is the thoughts of a Spirit or alternate being. Thanks. **(/Authors Note)**

**(Summary;) **Anna is home with Yoh, and is thinking about Manta's dilemma. Things start to go strange around the Inn, leaving her in a horrible mess. **(/Summary)**

**- x - ( From Past to Present; Chapter Three ) - x -**

Though it was unusual for Anna to be dwelling on a thought so simple as the one she had been recently, there was deffinately something bothering her about the situation with Manta.

It was well known (well, sort of) that Anna was not always the witch she tended to act as, for long ago when Yoh had nearly died in the Shaman tournament, she was so torn that just the thought bothered her when she looked back on it. She gazed over at Yoh, who was sitting, quite unconveniently to her own causes, on the other side of the den, with his back to her as he listened to his music over his headphones.

Gazing over at her fiancee's back, she narrowed her eyes at him slightly as she lounged on the couch. "Yoh."

No reply; Yoh continued to bob his head animatedly to the tunes playing over his headphones, swaying back and forth in his spot. Anna narrowed her eyes even further.

"_Asakura Yoh._"

This time she almost hissed his name, though he still didn't appear to hear her. Frowning darkly she lifted an empty flowerpot off of the table, and in a moment's time Yoh was sprawled out on the floor, rubbing the back of his head.

"Owww! Anna, what was that for?" he mumbled, turning his eyes un her with his hands pressed against his temples. Anna glared at him, yawning and then staring at him again with her dangerous glare. "Go make dinner. I'm hungry."

Yoh gave her a somewhat disdained look, but obediently turned off his music and stood up, slouching away towards the kitchen without an arguement.

Anna watched his retreating back with a more or less satisfied expression on her face. Now with the damned distracting Shaman out of the way she could think more clearly. Laying back on the couch she stared at the ceiling of the Funbari Onsen Inn. What form of figure could have been capable of framing Yoh of such an act? Surely no one from school. Oh no, that wasn't possible. No one was that smart, and no one looked like her Yoh, anyway. She knew everyone, and watched everyone, and kept tabs on everyone. She couldn't come up with any good reason for them to, either.

Well, maybe Manta had just been lying? That seemed like a valid form of reasoning. Ha. Yeah right; as though Manta would make up a story like that. She knew they were best friends; they had to be, if Manta would come around enough to put up with her work schedules. And sometimes he even _did_ them, which amused her to an unimaginable extent. But no, Manta was deffinately not a possible villain in this ... _crime_, if it could even be _called_ that, moreso a victim if anything.

Yes, the only story reasonable of consideration would be that it had been Hao. But again there was a flaw in her assumtions; right, hello? Hao was dead. Long dead. The stupid pervert was gone, by the hand of Yoh, of course. He seemed to have a habit of good-doing. Which was better for the most part, but he was just so _lazy_.

Frowning, Anna glanced up, and her eyes widened as she jumped. "Yoh," she said, a hand gripping her own chest. "... Why aren't you cooking?" she suddenly asked darkly, standing up as she collected herself. Yoh was looking at her lazily, shaking his head a bit. Anna was thoroughly disturbed; how could she have allowed him to sneak up on her so quickly?

"Iie, Anna," Yoh replied with a lazy smile, walking up to his fiance and standing infront of her, obtaining an unusually bold demeaner. It actually almost startled Anna, though instead she just looked even bolder at her ability's best. "I have something to show you."

Yoh started to walk towards the kitchen, and, reluctantly, Anna followed, irritated though curious all at once. What was this... this... she didn't know how to describe it. Insistance. This _backbone_, that Yoh suddenly possessed. Though, walking into the kitchen, she gazed around, glancing idly at the table set for two in the middle of the kitchen. By 'make dinner' she hadn't actually ment for both of them, just herself, but at least his skills were improving _somewhere_ considering he was doing absolutely _mortifying _in school.

"Yoh... how did you make this so quickly?" Anna inquired, walking over to the table and observing it with half-lidded, narrowed eyes. She caught Yoh's slight sweatdrop out of the corner of her eye, and she turned on him darkly. "You didn't get take out, _did you_? You know that I can't stand grease," she said, glowering. Yoh jumped a little, waving his hands and shaking his head. "Ano... no! I made it all myself," he replied, smiling lazily again at her.

Anna gave Yoh a somewhat interrogative look before she walked to the table, sitting on her mat and then stirring the food around with her chopsticks. It looked alright, never up to her standards, though, because she had no standards; nothing was perfect in her eyes, unless it was her making it. She sifted through the noodles and vegetables and then lifted the food to her mouth, sucking in the last of the noodles and closing her eyes as she chewed it, grading it mentally.

"Not enough salt again," she spoke as she began her criticism, setting her chopsticks back down and frowning, eyes still closed. She waved her hand in the air at Yoh dismissively. "Go and start over-"

A sudden, hard palm smacked Anna across her left cheek with such force that it knocked her sideways. She stared at the floor, eyes wide, her hand instinctively flying to her mouth as she saw blood dripping onto the cold white tiles. She continued to stare in complete shock at the ground before she slowly turned her face towards Yoh, who was still standing beside her in a position that clearly diagnosed him as the culprit that had violated her cheek.

But this... this was obsurd. Yoh would never... Yoh would... _never_...

"... ever... _ever_ hit his precious fiance, would he?" Yoh finished, grabbing Anna roughly by the collar of her dress and wrenching her up off of the floor so that they were face to face. He flattened his hand out between her collar bones towards her neck as he pinned her up against the kitchen wall, a dark smile gracing his lips as he ran a subtle hand down her cheek.

"Of _course_ he wouldn't, _Kyouyama Anna,_" Yoh said smoothly in a slightly differently accented Japanese now, his smile merely growing as she looked at him with an even more thoroughly confused look, hands gripping his arm as she attempted to free herself from the space between his hand and the wall. "Yoh would _never_ lay a hand on you... because he just doesn't have the backbone or courage to snap back at you..."

Yoh ran the back of his hand down Anna's cheek and she quivered weakly as it travelled down to her necklace, twisting his fingertips around in the beads and then tearing it from her neck, sending the white balls rolling across the kitchen floor.

Anna watched a bead roll away out of the corner of her eye and then her eyes landed fearfully back onto Yoh's again, though something was out of place. His expression was pure venom, and almost empty of any feeling. She could see vengeance in these eyes, dark and full of current yearning to discipline.

These were not Yoh's eyes.

This was not her Yoh.

"Anna," Yoh spoke again, leaning in closer to her so that his lips were just lingering over her's, though they suddenly dodged away. She'd long given up her struggle as Yoh's mouth loomed by her ear.

_"This is for when you slapped me at the Shaman Tournament_," he whispered in harsh English.

**(Shouts;)**

_kkkkkitty_; Um... okay? XD; Thanks.

_SaturnMax_; Kami, you've just given me a plotbunny. I'll see what I can do! Thanks for the review.

_Envyismylove_; XD Thanks Tillers. Love ya.

**(/Shouts)**


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